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Back The Darkest Shore Save as PDF
Chapters (76)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Also by Karen Brooks
  4. Title Page
  5. Dedication
  6. EXPLANATORY NOTE
  7. PART ONE
  8. One
  9. Two
  10. Three
  11. Four
  12. Five
  13. Six
  14. Seven
  15. Eight
  16. Nine
  17. Ten
  18. Eleven
  19. Twelve
  20. Thirteen
  21. Fourteen
  22. Fifteen
  23. Sixteen
  24. Seventeen
  25. Eighteen
  26. Nineteen
  27. Twenty
  28. Twenty-One
  29. Twenty-Two
  30. Twenty-Three
  31. Twenty-Four
  32. Twenty-Five
  33. Twenty-Six
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. PART TWO
  37. Twenty-Nine
  38. Thirty
  39. Thirty-One
  40. Thirty-Two
  41. Thirty-Three
  42. Thirty-Four
  43. Thirty-Five
  44. PART THREE
  45. Thirty-Six
  46. Thirty-Seven
  47. Thirty-Eight
  48. Thirty-Nine
  49. Forty
  50. Forty-One
  51. Forty-Two
  52. Forty-Three
  53. Forty-Four
  54. Forty-Five
  55. Forty-Six
  56. Forty-Seven
  57. Forty-Eight
  58. Forty-Nine
  59. Fifty
  60. Fifty-One
  61. Fifty-Two
  62. PART FOUR
  63. Fifty-Three
  64. Fifty-Four
  65. Fifty-Five
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Fifty-Seven
  68. Fifty-Eight
  69. Fifty-Nine
  70. Sixty
  71. Sixty-One
  72. Epilogue: Autumn 1706
  73. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  74. GLOSSARY
  75. LIST OF CHARACTERS
  76. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Praying Nettie wasn’t still regarding her with those all-knowing eyes, she rose to fetch another drink. Her hand found a flagon of ale, but she delayed returning to her chair, trying to dissemble. She wasn’t being entirely honest — neither with Nettie nor herself. A part of her had known it was Kennocht she was kissing and didn’t care. It was as if the devil had taken over her body, whispering to her that Dagny didn’t deserve him. Her sister didn’t give a tinker’s cuss about her family, about Sorcha, having left her to fend for herself in the Weem even after their da, mor and brother died. She didn’t believe Robbie was alive and had no compunction about sharing this view with Sorcha — or anybody else who’d listen — regardless of the pain it caused her sister. Why should Sorcha be concerned about her feelings? Dagny was a cold one anyway. Why, she hadn’t come home when their mor died, nor when Andy or Davan passed. Didn’t matter she was with another bairn. Nary a note or message, she’d left Sorcha to wallow in the grief she wasn’t supposed to show.

But it was more than that.

Deep down, Sorcha worried that she’d kissed Kennocht back out of spite, to pay Dagny back for the way she’d treated her while they were growing up. Resenting Sorcha from the moment she was born, she’d been a cruel older sister, determined to make Sorcha’s life as miserable as she felt her own to be. It didn’t help that their mother never intervened in their bickering or, when she did, more often took Dagny’s side. Loathing the ways of the fisher folk, hating that her name marked her as an incomer like her mor in ways Sorcha’s did not, Dagny had done all she could to maintain the divisions she imagined between herself and her younger sister until they were real. The more Sorcha learned about being a fishwife, the more Dagny rejected their ways; the closer Sorcha became to their da and their older brother Erik, the more Dagny withdrew until the distance between them was an unbridgeable chasm. When Dagny finally did what she had threatened to do for years and left the Weem, accepting the hand of a lad who worked on a laird’s estate outside St Andrew’s, the greatest emotion Sorcha felt was relief.